Someone at another forum has talked to the theater and tickets will go on sale May 13. Telephoning may be the only way to get tickets. I posted the numbers above. Excellent english seems to be spoken in the Netherlands so ordering on the phone shouldn't be a problem.

The day after tomorrow the Bolshoi will begin its 12 day series with seven performances of "Swan Lake."

I am living in Europe more now and am hoping to see some of these. Several years ago I thought that I might have set a world's record for the number of "Giselles" ever seen in one season. This year the number of "Swan Lakes" that I have seen (and hope to see) may surpass all that. "Swan Lakes" were in series everywhere--Saint Petersburg, New York and now Amsterdam. As usual I loved them all, from Gillian Murphy's in Saint Petersburg to, yes(!), Gillian Murphy's in New York. She really did shine in these! Other Odette-Odiles this season were Veronika Part, Nina Ananiashvili, Diana Vishneva, Maria Alexandrova, Viktoria Tereshkina, Tamara Rojo, Elena Sheshina, Yekaterina Borchenko, Julie Kent (Odile) and Irina Dvorovenko (Odette). Wow!

I saw the Bolshoi perform "Swan Lake" in Birmingham, England in April, 2006. The Odette-Odiles at the time were Maria Alexandrova, Anna Antonicheva, Maria Allash and Svetlana Lunkina. Svetlana Zakharova wasn't there. This was also where the very young Natalia Osipova made a great first impression on many as the Spanish Princess when she sailed across the stage each night and moved her hands and arms with delicately refined loveliness in the slower sequences.

Svetlana Zakharova, I have only see performing "Swan Lake" on video. I think she does it magnificently. I put her in the ranks of the great 'long, linear and lyrical' ballerinas--Ulyana Lopatkina, Veronika Part, etc. (and dare I include once again a personal video favorite, Marina Rzhannikova). Svetlana Zakharova is a multi-dimensional wonder. She is so capable that it is easy to lose track of it all. Although she is most famous for her 'elegant' highlights and her lyrical delicacy, I have seen her do athletically amazing sequences in addition to remarkably extending her limbs. She has a total sense of surety. Her physical beauty and more importantly what she does with it can be arresting. Her stage presence alone can command total attention. She is a most accomplished as well as a most compelling performing artist.

Svetlana Lunkina will be the only lady dancing Odette-Odile in Amsterdam who also danced in Birmingham. She can shine with the best of them! I saw her once performing the lead in "The Pharaoh's Daughter". A man was sitting next to me with his granddaughter. He said that he wished that they could have seen Svetlana Zakharova dancing this. I said to him that he should wait until the last two adagios (graceful, slow dance sections) and see how Svetlana Lunkina does. When the adagios arrived she flowed into and held her lift poses and positions as beautifully as I have ever seen. She was magnificent, absolutely magnificent! The man told me afterwards how very happy he was to have been able to have seen Svetlana Lunkina.

Nadezhda Gracheva is a beautiful and from what I have experienced a consistently fine dancer. First coached by Galina Ulanova, she was considered the Bolshoi's "prima ballerina" when Yuri Grigorovich was still in charge. Since he again apparently has control of casting of 'his own' ballets at the Bolshoi he may well have really wanted Nadezhda Gracheva to dance this one. I saw her in Chicago several years ago dancing the lead twice in "Raymonda." Not only did she dance beautifully with total confidence, but she really seemed to love being there doing what she was doing. Her face lit up like a little child when the audience gave her a wonderful round of applause at the end of her second performance. I very much look forward to seeing her again. Like Nina Ananiashvili in a recent "Swan Lake" performance in NYC, I am sure that she is capable of going the distance and dancing brilliantly with both youthfulness and consummately mature artistry.

The women's corps de ballet's dancing at the Birmingham "Swan Lake" performances was a delight and a display of great loveliness. I enthusiastically wrote this elsewhere at the time:

"In any case it seems that the wondrous uplifting dancing of many ballets transcends the plot.
For me ballet at it's best is an expression of "The Triumph of Love and Beauty".
Now to an area of real delight for me--a look at the corps de ballet and some destinctions between the Bolshoi and the Kirov-Mariinsky .
Some generalizations.
If the Russian ballet is known for it's "Heart and Soul" I would suggest that the Bolshoi is perhaps the "Heart" and the Kirov-Mariinsky is the "Soul".
The Bolshoi in my very limited viewing experience has "outward expression". It "charms" and it can make you feel "moved" or better yet "happy".
The Kirov-Mariinsky has "inner expression". It "enchants" and it can make you feel "elevated".
Of course these are large and not always consistant generalizations as I will try to illustrate right now by looking at the performance of the Bolshoi corps de ballet Swans.
Bolshoi "Heart" (to be expected)
Enter--twenty-four Bolshoi White Swans. They are almost joyously bouncing across the stage.
Twenty-four entrapped princesses joyfully bouncing across the stage??? Yes!
To me this is Bolshoi genius! First of all it is the Bolshoi female response to the Bolshoi male bravura and it is a delight!
But twenty-four entrapped princesses--joyous???
Mr. Rogers of children's program fame once returned from Moscow. He commented on the beautiful vibrant colored decoration on the old cathedral exteriors. From his wonderful child's eye view he commented, that in contrast to the historical harshness of life that he still felt in Moscow, the old Russia had a remarkable sense of "Whimsy".
Joy arising from a world of adversity. In the case of our White Swans perhaps--Bolshoi "Heart"--Russian "Heart".
What about the "Soul"? Well that's over at the Kirov-Mariinsky--right?
The ballet is almost over. In come twelve [twenty-four?] Bolshoi White Swans to perform about five minutes of the most lovely "enchanting" dancing that I could imagine. It recalled immediately the Kirov-Mariinsky entrance of the Shades, the most lyrical interpretation of the Willis, the violin solo entre acte of Sleeping Beauty.
So distinctions are sometimes hard to make, but the rapture of beauty is still overwhelming.
"Da skorai stretchi." "Until Next Time."
To everyone involved, " *Bolshoe* spassiba! " "Thank you very much!" "

I probably will not have computer access in Amsterdam, but will try and write something when I return. I am so looking forward to the great pleasure and privilege of once again seeing the Bolshoi Ballet perform the eternally compelling and artistically sublime "Swan Lake."

[some word corrections made later]

Last edited by Buddy on Mon Jul 14, 2008 3:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.

In a city that can be one of the most beautifully enchanting that I have ever seen came one of the most beautifully enchanting groups of performing artists that I have ever seen.

Some interesting comparisons can be made between the city of Amsterdam and the art of the Bolshoi Ballet. Amsterdam is a city that almost literally floats on the water as ballet dancers seem to float on top of a stage. The canals of Amsterdam, lined with charming old townhouses and beautifully green trees, channel the water into a choreography of artistic and technically formidable landscaping. It is a city of art. Art is everywhere from the world famous museums housing Rembrandts, Vermeers and Van Goghs, to the artistic displays in and around the huge windows of the houses, to the colorful individuality in dress and attitude of the folks who live here. Especially noticeable is the creative and colorful dress of the little children.

In a city that seems to almost magically float along the ever present glittering world of choreographed waterways, the Bolshoi Ballet brought its own display of artistic splendor.

The first thing that I usually feel when the curtain goes up on a Bolshoi production is an artistic essence. The art of ballet dancing and ballet expression is like their home, their world. They seem as comfortable and as natural in it as we are sitting in our own living rooms. The dancers seem to radiate an aura, an unspoken and innocently honest declaration--'that they are in fact---ballet !'

One of the initially interesting things about this Yuri Gregorovich production is that the two lead dancers, first Prince Siegfried and then Odette-Odile, are introduced in a flash, no fanfare or preparation at all. The curtain goes up and there is Siegfried dancing away almost immediately. You are not really sure who he is at first. The same with Odette. A group of white swan dancers appear in an instant and in the next instant one of them, Odette, is dancing by herself. I sometimes have wondered if this was a gesture to the Soviet ideal of the equality of all individuals. There seem to be other such gestures that I have noticed in Soviet videos, such as the very famous Maya Plisetskaya, dancing the very important "Swan Lake" pas de deux, being partially filmed from the back of the stage with the corps de ballet of swans taking up most of the picture.

In any case what is very interesting and in a way very challenging in this "Swan Lake" is that these lead performers have to start out immediately on their own. There is hardly any time for them to receive any early applause or recognition that could give them some initial support. One of the best at this, as I have witnessed several times, is Nadezhda Gracheva. She appears and after a few seconds there is no doubt that she is going to be brilliant for the entire performance and she is!

The entire Bolshoi company seems like this as well. The curtain goes up and within a few seconds their world of artistic surety and splendor is completely established.

The Odette-Odiles, that I saw, each have their own distinct and wonderful qualities, which I have referred to above, and hope to write more about further on. The main point for the moment is that they are the essence of this ballet and they each performed magnificently!

The Princes (Siegfrieds) are the basic support that enable the ballerinas to shine. As in Birmingham several years ago, I would say that the men performed about equally well and very well. They are all graceful dancers, offering solid support to the ballerinas with very pleasant highlights and personalities of their own. I thought that Ruslan Skvortsov did a particularly fine job in the demanding final performance (end of season, seven "Swan Lakes" in five days, four of them in the last two days) with excellent high airy jumps, smooth, clean turns and a fine sense of togetherness and sensitivity in all his final dancing and portraying.

The Corps De Ballet Of Swans

This women's corps de ballet is an unquestioned thing of beauty. It is both a foundation for the luminous central activity of the principal dancers and a marvelously beautiful presence in itself. In their radiantly gorgeous white ballet dresses they became both magnificent objects of flowing, glowing imagery from another dimension and loving, gently soulful human beings. As the Act I white swans, they floated across the stage with their back legs held out straight in delicately lovely arabesque positions. They framed all the central activity by reaching out, gesturing and gracefully modeling themselves into creations of artistically divined imagery.

The Bolshoi's corps de ballet of swans' dancing, that begins the final Act, is for me some of the most beautiful and enchanting dancing in all of ballet. I really wanted to count exactly how many swan dancers were on stage, but for the entire five performances I was so entranced by their dancing that I had no wish to look outside of the enchantment that they were creating, even for a second.

I hope to be able to describe some the excellent performing of each of the lead ballerinas, the Jester, the male dancers in general, the prince's friends, the character dancers and more at another time.

[some minor editing]

Last edited by Buddy on Fri Jul 25, 2008 9:10 am, edited 1 time in total.

Last week in Amsterdam, if I were to describe a dancer, Nadezhda Gracheva could have been the Heart, Svetlana Zakharova the Beauty and Svetlana Lunkina the Breath of Life with a lot of overlapping of these dancers implied.

So let's start with breathing.

Svetlana Lunkina

(Sunday, July 20)

She Danced Like The Air

She was the "Svetlana Lunkina" that I had Hoped some day to see.

I can try and describe what she did that was so special. It had to do with airiness. She moved like the air. More than that it was as if the center of her body was the air itself that ever so gracefully carried the rest of her along.

An analogy that I can't resist, since this was in Amsterdam, is to the paintings of Rembrandt. He was known as the painter of Inner Light. Svetlana Lunkina was the dancer of Inner Elevation.

From the very start her moves were so lightly graceful and so expressively lyrical. She was a gentle breeze filling in all the empty spaces left behind by all the beauty that had preceded her in the previous days of dancing. She seemed to make the efforts of all the other dancers complete. Once she had finished there was little more that could have been asked for.

Her portrayal of Odette was again of the air. Her Odile was a sort of joyful dancing along with an occasional glance to the audience to let us know that she was reeling in her prince, very charming in its way.

Her lift positioning seems to be one of her strongest elements and here once again she was magnificent as she stretched out from overhead in goddess-like poses.

What was so very special for me this time was that she sustained her magnificent artistry completely from the moment that she walked on stage until the final curtain came down.

When the performance was over and the audience was enthusiastically applauding her,

She Was Perhaps At Her Loveliest.

She was as natural and warm as could be as she beamed back in thanks ushering her fellow dancers forward in appreciation for what they had done. After many calls back she had at least one member of the audience feeling as warm and lighthearted as could be--myself !

[a title sentence added]

Last edited by Buddy on Fri Jul 25, 2008 11:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

This is the first time that I have ever seen her so committed in her character portrayal. She gave herself over to defining her character with a depth of feeling and expression that was extremely convincing and compelling. I have never seen her step outside herself to this extent before and I think it was a very soulful and successful effort.

Her Dancing Was As Always A Study Of Gracefulness And Lyrical Beauty.

Her ability to personify beauty in motion seems to be built-in. She is so statuesque and exquisite looking that she can stand still and become an artistic masterpiece. When she moves her beauty just flows as naturally as is possible.

Her Odette was a marvelously graceful work of art. It can be witnessed on her "Swan Lake" video. In this performance she seemed somewhat more velvety and relaxed along with a greater depth of expression. Her statuesque and lyrical dancing was as fine and entrancing as ever. One of the highlights was the airy grace and smoothness of her supported pirouettes. At the end of Act I some of the audience around me gave her a well deserved standing ovation.

As Odile she really displayed her outstanding technical ability. There are several significant pointes that are held in this Act. She held them all beautifully for a considerable length of time. One requires her to lower her highly extended other leg at the same time. She did this ever so slowly with exceptional grace. In appreciation she received the only applause for holding pointe of the five performances that I attended.

She also interspersed some 6 o'clocks (one leg held straight up 180 degrees) throughout the evening. They seemed obviously intended to add excitement to her performance. I will say here that the use of 6 o'clocks by the other dancers was very limited from what I noticed. When Svetlana Zakharova does them, for me, they really do seem to be naturally beautiful and integral to her remarkably statuesque dancing.

In the last Act she once again danced her Odette with total loveliness along with total physical commitment to the dramatic series of final lifts.

Dancing with the exceptional Bolshoi women's corps de ballet she was a goddess among goddesses.

At the final curtain calls she was very gracious in expressing her appreciation to all the other performers and gestured the rather surprised women's corps de ballet to step forward for another round of very well deserved applause.

As exceptional as she is, she continues to grow as an artist and it is a real joy and a wonder to experience.

Nadezhda Gracheva

(Saturday, July 19, matinee)

I am coming to see ballet more clearly as a living art form. In the arts I can't think of anything that could be more exciting to do or experience.

The Dancers Turn Themselves Into Works Of Living Art.

Possibly nobody did this better last week than Nadezhda Gracheva. I have often heard that in ballet the artistry grows with age. Happily from what I have seen this is very true.

When she appeared on stage I didn't recognize her. She looked slightly slimmer and so beautifully lyrical that I thought they had rescheduled Svetlana Lunkina for an extra performance. Her hair did seem a bit darker. I have watched her often on her famous "La Bayadere" video with the wonderful Yuri Vetrov and I saw her twice several years ago in Chicago dancing "Raymonda". After a few minutes I started thinking that maybe this was her after-all. Her face became more recognizable. It showed a bit of the kitten-like youthfulness that I was more familiar with and it now had a lovely mature sweetness as well.

Her Portrayal And Physical Expression Was Absolutely Masterful !

Everything that she did was so brilliantly nuanced and seemed so meaningful. It all seemed totally mastered and yet it felt so convincingly spontaneous. It again reminded me of Nina Ananiashvili in NYC about a month earlier. Both dancers moved through their presentation as if they had done it a thousand times before and yet it was so alive. It was as if they had grown into it and were so familiar with it that now they were able to actually Live it.

All of Nadezhda Gracheva's expressive moves and portrayals were so clearly defined and easy to understand. Her very sympathetic Odette was nuanced with every shade of lovely emotion. It was so heartfelt. Her Odile was a dramatically exciting and also a very complexly subtle character.

Her dancing was very beautiful. The graceful way that she moved her arms was especially lovely. She handled the difficult physical parts very well. She went almost totally upside-down in the Act I lifts and came out of them seemingly poised to charge ahead into any new physical challenge without a care. In other lifts, once comfortably lofted overhead, she surveyed her surroundings as if this was her natural place in the universe. As Odile she did single fouette spins, but with her elevated leg extended to a stunning looking, completely horizontal position. At her Sunday performance she did single-double fouettes with her arms extended vertically overhead during some singles. She moved energetically and youthfully. She completed a series of jumps that reminded me of her highly agile "La Bayadere" performance. She held some impressively long pointes as Odile. During one, like Svetlana Zakharova, she brought her other highly elevated leg slowly down with wonderful gracefulness.

I am already back in Switzerland. I just stayed for three nights, but was able to see the last five performances of "Swan Lake". The first two performances featured the same dancers.
Svetlana Zakharova--Alexander Volchkov (Wednesday, July 16)
Nadezhda Gracheva--Ruslan Skvortsov (Thursday, July 17)

Nadezhda Gracheva and Ruslan Skvortsov danced three times in four days. This was a lot of dancing.

This is a fairly animated character dance that may well have been immortalized several years ago by the very young Natalia Osipova.

It is one of five national dances that are staged in the Queen's castle before the duet of Odile and Prince Siegfried.

This year Natalia Osipova was not yet present but two other very fine young dancers were, Chinara Alizade and Anna Tikhomirova. They alternated performances.

Chinara Alizade and Anna Tikhomirova

I have been wanting to see Chinara Alizade very much since Clement Crisp singled her out during the Bolshoi visit to London two summers ago. She is a stunner! I think that she has some definite resemblances to the famous Altnai Asylmuratova from the Kirov. The lyrical way that every move that she makes has definition and expression reminds me so much of Altnai Asylmuratova. She also has Altynai Asylmuratova's short but willowy build and her darker complexion. You really don't want to take your eyes off of her for a moment because there is so much going on in her dancing.

Neither she nor Anna Tikhomirova have Natalia Osipova's amazing jumping ability or her hyper-lovability, but they both do a very respectable job with the jumps and have their own similar distinct qualities. They are both very expressive and clearly articulate in their dancing. They also have a lot of liveliness and personality, but it shows more in their dancing than in their portrayals.

They are both extremely fine and interesting dancers that I am sure we will be seeing much more of in future Bolshoi visits.

The Corps De Ballet

While mentioning the alternating performances of the two young ladies above, may I express my deepest respect and appreciation for all the members of the corps de ballet who danced "Swan Lake" 'every performance' of the series and will probably continue to dance every performance through all the remaining Amsterdam tour.

The women were absolutely charming throughout and the men were as supportive of the women and impressively together on their own as I have ever seen.

(www) Welcome to the World of "Wow!" This Is One Very Exciting Dancer !

As he was sailing through space--my main impression of his dancing was how very exciting it was without really going over the top. There was a cleanness and refinement to his spectacular performance. He is somewhat slimmer in build than the other Russian Jesters that I have seen, which gives him a slightly more streamlined appearance. He attained unbelievable speed and height with agility and total control.

His appearance onstage is much more limited in time and scope than the Kirov Jester, but when he does appear--

Stand Back !!

His two major sequences are the exciting series of Spins in the Act I court scene and the strategically placed series of 'incredible' Jump Turns that open the second half of this ballet, the court scene leading up to the appearance of Odile.

In the Act I series of one leg out horizontal to the side, ever accelerating spins he may well have achieved the speed of light velocity attained by the Kirov Jester, Andrei Ivanov, about two years ago. There was a huge Amsterdam audience applause at every performance.

In his court scene jumps and air-born maneuvers the highlight was the culminating several jump turns with his knees bent outward and his legs crossed below in an impressive extended manner. With these several whirlwind 'tours en l'air' he entered the rarified atmosphere inhabited by Leonid Sarafanov, Ivan Vasiliev and other fine artists. There was also an underlying grace and artistic restraint in his spectacular skyward bursts. Again the audience was beside itself with enthusiastic applause !

At the end of one of his amazing jump turn sequences he slipped to the ground. If you looked carefully through his almost unflappable characterization you could see his disappointment. My amazement was that he could stand up at all after any of these jump turns! These were no stop, no holding back, flinging-yourself-into-the-hands-of-the-gods, lunges into the heavens ! At the next performance he did the same series flawlessly with possibly even more speed and height. There was not a sign of hesitation in what he did at all. Once again he seemed totally in control of his onstage destiny.

There was also an extension to Vyacheslav Lopatin's moves, a reaching a bit further out, that gave them an added linear attraction.

Vyacheslav Lopatin did perform athletic wonders and for me they were both excitingly entertaining and artistically exhilarating !

The five national court dances that were performed before the arrival of Odile, I thought were very well danced and very entertaining.

The five Princesses were danced beautifully with almost uniform excellence. All their names are certainly worth remembering.

Hungarian Dance: Nelli Kobakhidze, Yulia Grebenshchikova

Russian Dance: Anna Rebetskanya, Olga Stebletsova

Spanish Dance: Chinara Alizade, Anna Tikhomirova

Neapolitan Dance: Anastasia Goryacheva, Nina Kaptsova

Polish Dance: Ann Leonova

Chinara Alizade and Anna Tikhomirova, I have already justly praised for their expressive, lively and articulate dancing.

Anastasia Goryacheva had a delightful resemblance to the Kirov's lovable Evgenia Obaztsova, both in her very pleasant round and smiling face and her delicate, graceful dancing.

Nina Kaptsova did a very lively interpretation as the Neapolitan Princess and also appeared alternately in other programs as one of the Prince's Friends.

Nelli Kobakhidze, I thought danced with beautiful elegance.

Anna Rebetskanya and Olga Stebletsova took on a special significance with their delicately meaningful hand gestures in the Russian Dance.

Yulia Grebenshchikova, Olga Stebletsova, Anna Tikomirova and Anna Leonova were all particularly noteworthy at one presentation, where they all performed in an elegantly statuesque manner and with stunning facial beauty that could have easily graced the cover of any famous women's fashion magazine. Only Anastasia Goryacheva stood out as being different with her equally captivating shorter build and doll-like radiance.

All the ladies performed beautifully with wonderful, distinctly appropriate personalities and dancing styles. Some of them also alternated as the Three and Fours Swans, who were integrated in a very fine manner with the marvelous corps de ballet swan dancing.

The background dancers did as well as I've seen in this type of dancing. They completely held my attention with their togetherness, commitment, liveliness and expression.

The four male dancers from the Neapolitan Dance particularly caught my attention as they sailed onto the stage in perfect unison and then danced with excitement to signal the arrival of the Neapolitan Princess.

The dancers in the Polish Dance were also especially exciting when the men were whirling the women over their shoulders in an animated waltz-like sequence.

The Princes

Dmitry Gudanov

Ruslan Skvortsov

Alexander Volchkov

As I mentioned at the beginning I felt that all these men danced and supported the women very well and had very fine and sensitive portrayals. I liked Dmitry Gudanov's sensitivity very much. Ruslan Skvortsov and Alexander Volchkov both seemed larger in build, but danced with equal lightness and grace. They all performed impressively high and airy jumps.

The Prince's Friends

Ekaterina Krysanova (danced every performance)

Anna Nikulina and Nina Kaptsova (alternated)

(Anastasia Yatsenko, who danced wonderfully alongside Ekaterina Krysanova over two years ago in Birmingham was not present this year.)

In this version the Prince, himself, dances with the two Friends

Ekaterina Krysanova was especially lovely with her floating airy manner and her beautifully positioned and outward reaching legs and arms. Both Anna Nikulina and Nina Kaptsova provided a lively contrast with their energetic high leg lift turns and the looseness, crispness and fullness of their dancing styles.

[the names of the dancing groups "Neapolitan" and "Polish" were corrected in the brief description the 'background' dancers]

Last edited by Buddy on Thu Aug 14, 2008 4:05 am, edited 3 times in total.

I'm pleased to hear that Goryachova and Kaptsova appeared as both these girls seemed a little neglected until recently. It can't be long before we see the lovely Nelli Kobakhidze dancing a leading role, surely? And I love watching Anna Leonova, the absolute image of her mother, she even dances like her too!

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